Julia Denos's Blog, page 14

For Our Grandmas

Ok, get ready for some goosebumps and watch this movie Cecil Castellucci made in honor of her Grandmother for today-the release of Grandma's Gloves! I love this little movie so much:



I think I should take a moment for my own grandmas too. When I got the manuscript, both of them had just recently passed, and both were very close to me. It was difficult at first, but cathartic to paint through it. I had brilliant models for my Grandma's Gloves grandma: Pocca and Nana.

Pocca:



Pocca was Scottish, an...

OH NO! 826 L.A. Project/Gallery Nucleus

Mind-controlled dogs+city-destroying robot+science fair gone wrong= the premise behind Dan Santat and Mac Barnett's new picture book, "Oh NO"! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World). The guys invited illustrators to draw their own visions of that fateful day on supplied materials and even fill out OFFICIAL police reports for a fun way to help raise funds for a great cause.

Original art and police reports will be auctioned in two phases to benefit 826 LA (an amazing non-profit writing ...

At work:

Shh! You spied Alice McKinley on my desk! We've been hanging out a lot since I've started working on a series of covers for this classic series . It's made for some sweet summer reading–I recommend. I ♥ Alice M.

Event! Grandma's Gloves Launch Party

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I'm so happy to announce a book launch party celebrating the release of Grandma's Gloves! It will be on Saturday, August 14th, noon, at that close-to-my-heart indie bookstore in Harvard Square, Curious George! Grandma's Gloves author and acclaimed YA novelist, Cecil Castellucci will be here on a special visit from the west coast so be sure to come by and meet this fantastic lady (I can't wait to myself!) Please come join us for a garden-filled afternoon. We'd love to see you. There will be bo...

Book Event: Grandma's Gloves at Curious George

[image error]

I'm so happy to announce a book launch party celebrating the release of Grandma's Gloves! It will be on Saturday, August 14th, noon, at that close-to-my-heart indie bookstore in Harvard Square, Curious George! Grandma's Gloves author and acclaimed YA novelist, Cecil Castellucci will be here on a special visit from the west coast so be sure to come by and meet this fantastic lady (I can't wait to myself!) Please come join us for a garden-filled afternoon. We'd love to see you. There will be bo...

Stretch 2: Color fever!

Too much has been happening on the visual front for the past month to put most of into words quite yet... Learning at high speeds from the intense relationship between color, shape, and pattern. My whole life, when I've been stuck on an art problem, sometimes I'd wake up with the visual "answer" materialized vividly for me in the last seconds of a dream before waking up. I realized I'd finally hit a little art peak after weeks of chasing pattern, when I woke up with the clear view of this (be...

Happy Summertime to you!

Ta-da! Summer's here again! Time for thunderstorms, sandals, and peaches. Time for soaking life in through the roots.

Maui: Ana's Art

On our last day of Maui, we met Ana Faiva, an artist in downtown Lahaina. She had a breezy roadside tent set up to sell her work. We almost walked right by, but she welcomed us in warmly (despite our wary Bostonian ways) and told us stories of her art. I was entranced : she uses kukui nuts to make the dye on her tapa (bark cloth), and red dirt for the middle value, the way the women in her family had done for generations.
After talking to her about our honeymoon, she turned around and began to...

Stretch 1: Lady Line

Sometimes, RIGHT in the middle of drawing a piece of art for a job, and I'm plugged into some good music, I see something completely different and unrelated that I need to draw before it disappears. That's when art making is so so crazy. You feel vulnerable and like a "channel". Ideas are freely flowing through you without much input from your brain. It's the best place to be, and it's the place where I learn my lessons, which eventually make their way to client work.
I want to try to start a ...

Flash Flash Flash

We're back! We flew home last week from the Big Island and Maui and settling back in after the most whirlwind 3 weeks ever! Matt's back to work and it's catch-up-week for me as Mrs. Perlot (woah). Catching up with art directors, my inbox, getting terribly re-acquainted with FB again, reading blogs, and letting the loads of inspiration I unpacked with our clothes and flipflops SIMMER. It's like waking up from a colorful, beautiful dream and watching it integrate into new art, daily life, the ...